adventures at the airport and other random musings

Month: July 2017

The last two days have been a whirlwind of aviation awesomeness! As you can probably tell from the title of this post, Airventure covers so many facets of aviation from military to commercial, from ultralights to the family GA airplane. In the last two days I’ve been immersing myself in all of these and it has been, frankly, overwhelming.

Tuesday Highlights

Tuesday morning I was quite determined to go see the warbirds. However, as often happens at Osh, we were distracted by the fact that they were allowing people inside the P-8 Poseidon. Of course we had to go check it out! The cockpit is more or less the same as your typical 737… except for the special military add-ons like the refueling panel. The seats in the back of the plane were replaced with computer work stations and equipment for dropping sonar buoys.

Stairs truck! Oh – and a Poseidon.

I did eventually make it to the warbirds area and was, as always, blown away by the sheer number of them. The rest of the day was spent setting up for and attending Oshbash (a gathering of social media avgeeks hosted by Airplanista.com)… and running outside every few moments to keep an eye on the afternoon air show.

Wednesday Highlights

Wednesday at Oshkosh is always WomenVenture. This year UPS flew in a gorgeous 767 with an all-female flight and maintenance crew. I was priveledged to participate in an interview session with one of the AMTs as well as an FO with a truly amazing story. You MUST check out FlyingandLife.com episode 26.2! I guest host with Mike and Glen and I help with the interviews.

In the afternoon I had the most incredible opportunity EVER! I got to visit the KOSH Airport terminal!!! Oh yeah – and there were F-18s parked all over the ramp.

I also got to interview one of the Blue Angels. Yes, you read that correctly. Lt Lance Benson was gracious enough (brave enough?) to let me talk with him and ask a few questions. I inquired about women on the Blue Angels team and getting girls interested in aviation. He mentioned that more and more women are becoming involved with Naval aviation and he spoke about getting kids involved in aviation early and encouraging them to follow their passion.

I also asked him about landing on an aircraft carrier. He gave us an idea what it is like to land at night by suggesting that we go inside our homes and turn out all the lights, light a single match and place it at the far end of a room. That little light in the distance is what a carrier looks like at night. Oh – and his favorite air show act? The Jack Links “Screaming Sasquatch” jet-assisted bi-plane.

I also got to interview one of the enlisted men who is part of the Blue Angels team (more on that in another post). After the interviews as I was walking away, the A-10 demo started. And yes, I completely freaked out. In front of the Blue Angels. Hey – when you love an airplane, you love it all the time. I’m sure the Blue Angels understand.

As always, there were tons and tons of amazing airplanes to see and fabulous air shows to watch. The night show was spectacular, as always – even in the pouring rain. (Thanks Doc for sheltering us from the storm!)

Stayed tuned for more from Osh! And if you aren’t following me on Twitter, check out my feed (@Jen_Niffer) for real-time tweets live from the show.

If you pay any attention to the aviation world then you know that today was the first day of Airventure Oshkosh 2017. And what an amazing day it has been! Here are just a few of the highlights:

Press Conferences

I was able to attend a couple of press conferences today. One was from Piper Aircraft, which included an overview of the company’s performance so far this year. They are celebrating the 80th anniversary of the Piper Cub, which explains why there are row after row of them parked over in the Vintage area. What an impressive milestone!

I also listened to Jack Pelton’s opening remarks. The attendance stats so far suggest that Osh17 may surpass last year. TIcket pre-sales were very strong and GA camping filled up on the first day. Mr. Pelton also spoke about the ATC privatization bill currently before Congress. If you haven’t already researched this issue, do it now. Then contact your representatives and let them know where you stand.

Airplanes! Airplanes! Airplanes!

There are so many amazing airplanes here that it can be completely overwhelming (in a totally awesome way). Some of the highlights from today include:

Doc and Fifi together at last.

The B-1B bomber.

A P-51 Mustang flying with two F-35s, followed immediately by two A-10s.

The Proteus.

The Buff.

Pipistrel’s all-electric LSA.

The only thing more wonderful than the airplanes was getting to spend time with so many old friends… many of whom I met for the first time. If you’ve ever been to Oshkosh, then that statement will make perfect sense.

Thanks Dan/David for taking/sharing this pic!

My only complaint was the total lack of stairs truck. There were none on the plaza. Zero. Zip. Nada. I finally located a few hanging out in a secure area that I couldn’t access. It’s almost like they knew I was coming! Oh well, tomorrow is another day – and it is sure to be just as amazing!

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! No, not the holiday season. I’m talking about Airventure 2017 in Oshkosh, of course! I am super excited to be returning to one of my favorite places. As you may recall, in years past I’ve “dragged” a couple of non-avgeek friends along with me. They’ve been tremendous good sports and we’ve had lots of fun. However, this year I’ll be sharing the Osh experience with my avgeek friends, several of whom will be attending for the first time. In addition to enjoying the displays and air shows, I’m planning to participate a number of events, including:

Mike Karrels intends to broadcast his podcast live from Osh every evening. I hope to join him for an episode or two. He’ll be tweeting a link to the live Youtube channel so follow him on twitter at @Flyingandlife and then join us in the Youtube chat room.

Oshbash is being held on Tuesday, July 25, at 5:30pm in the media center. This is a social media gathering and networking opportunity… AND there will be LOTS of bacon jerky! Oshbash is always a ton of fun so if you are available I hope you’ll stop by! As the official bacon jerky transporter, you can definitely count me in!

On Thursday, July 27, I am scheduled to be a guest on EAA Radio’s Attitude Adjustment show at 11:00 am with hosts Rob Mark and Amy Laboda. No clue what we’ll be discussing, but you can bet stairs trucks will probably come up at least once.

Podcast Meetup

Also on Thursday is a podcast meet-up for listeners of the Airline Pilot Guy, Plane Talking UK, Plane Safety Podcast, the Airplane Geeks, etc. The plan is to meet at the brown arch around noon and then wander off to find some lunch together.

Stalking Stairs Trucks

Where there are airplanes, there will be stairs trucks. And you can be fairly sure that I’ll be the only person at Osh making a big fuss over them. But as much as I love motorized stairs, I love airplanes more. I guarantee my social media feeds will be filled with things with wings.

Speaking of which, If you aren’t already doing so, follow me on Twitter (@Jen_Niffer) and Instagram (@talesfromtheterminal). I’ll be posting lots of updates and photos through-out Osh week. I’m also planning several blog posts so stay tuned! If you are headed to Osh17 I hope to see you there! If not, I hope you’ll keep track of my shenanigans and play along at home.

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